


Long Weekend

by Exdraghunt



Series: Steel bodies, Human Hearts [1]
Category: Thomas the Tank Engine - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Humanized
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 07:38:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3561578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exdraghunt/pseuds/Exdraghunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The engines wake up one morning to find that they have turned into humans. It was going to be a weird weekend. Not to be taken too seriously. Part 1 of a series</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

As the sun rose over the horizon, drivers and firemen made their way to Tidmouth sheds to wake their engines for the day. The first were to arrive were Edward’s crew, driver Charlie Sand and fireman Sidney Hever. Opening the door to the roundhouse, the two walked through the dark shed amongst the shadowy shapes of sleeping engines. It was very quiet, more so than usual. Several of the engines were known to talk, or even whistle, in their sleep and nearly all of them snored to some degree, but this morning it was completely silent. 

Reaching the stall where Edward had spent the night, fireman Sidney climbed up into his cab and stopped short at the sight of an unfamiliar man curled up on the footplate. People sneaking into the sheds wasn’t completely unheard of, but this man didn’t look like a drunkard or homeless person. He appeared to be in his late 40’s or early 50’s, clean shaven with neatly cut short grey hair, and perfectly tidy blue clothing. 

“Oi, up you” Sidney gave the man a nudge with his foot, “What are you doing in here?”

With a soft groan, the man slowly stirred and looked up at Sidney with bleary eyes, “Fireman? Is it morning already?”

“That’s right, I’m the fireman of this engine. You’re gonna have to move. What’s your name, and what are you doing in here?”

“What. Are you talking about?” The man looked very confused, “I’m Edward.” He shifted and pressed a hand to his head. “I. Feel a little funny.” He caught sight of his hand and yelped in surprise. Trying to get to his feet, the man bumped against Sidney and fell out of the cab to the gravel floor of the shed. 

“Edward?” That voice did sound very familiar, one that Sidney heard every day. He stared at the man sitting on the floor, who was looking at his hands with a kind of mute horror. 

“Sidney! We’ve got a problem,” Charlie called from the front of the engine. The fireman hurried over to see what the driver was so worried about and gasped. The front of the smoke box of the blue engine was a plain, sooty black with no adornment. The familiar, smiling face of their friend was not there. “Edward is gone.”

“I don’t think he got very far,” Sidney responded, looking back at the older man still sitting on the ground. Now, he was looking up at the engine in front of him with wide eyes. 

“What is going on?” Edward exclaimed, fear in his eyes.

Across the shed, the same scene was playing out as other drivers and firemen arrived to wake their engines. Soon, the shed doors had been opened to let the light in and a motley group of humans had been gathered in the middle of the shed. For some unknown reason, all the engines on the shed had been turned human. 

It was, at least, fairly easy to tell who was who after a moments consideration. For one, they seemed to all be dressed in clothing that matched the colors of their livery. Then it was just a matter of matching them up. Gordon, as the strongest and largest engine, was built like your average lumberjack, while at the other end of the spectrum Thomas was very slight and looked to be no older than a college freshman.

No one really knew what to do, so they stood around and waited. Soon enough, a car’s horn sounded outside the shed and they heard the sound of gravel crunching underfoot. The Fat Controller had arrived. 

Sir Topham Hatt walked up to the sheds, a smile on his face as he went to greet his engines for the morning. Upon seeing the blank, featureless boilers lacking the friendly faces he was used to, the man stopped short. “What is going on here?”

Charlie, the oldest of the drivers, was the one to step forward. “We were hoping you could tell us that, sir. We got here this morning and found the engines like this.” He gestured to Edward, who was standing next to him rubbing his hands together self-consciously.

“Like what?” The Fat Controller peered closer, then his eyes widened in surprise. “Edward?” He looked at the others standing there in front of him and, after a moment, recognized them too. “Thomas? Gordon, Henry, James, Percy, Emily? What happened? You’re all-“

“Human, sir. We noticed.” Edward finished.

A lot of strange things happened on Sodor, it was considered to be a part of life on the island. But this took the cake. What was he supposed to do with seven humans instead of seven engines? Work couldn’t be stopped, there were deliveries to make and people to transport no matter what kind of chaos was happening behind the scenes. With this in mind, Sir Topham Hatt made a decision. 

“Drivers, firemen, I need you to take the engines out today regardless. Please light off the fires and start getting steam up, I will assign you your jobs in a minute. As for the engines,” He looked over the assemblage and sighed. “You. You will spend the day in Tidmouth until your drivers return. I’ll give each of you a bit of money for food and such. If this isn’t figured out by sundown, meet back at the station and go home with either your driver or fireman. Now, I have some phone calls to make.”

This was going to be a terrible idea, but what else could he do? All the drivers and firemen were busy, and he didn’t trust anyone else to look after the engines. Hopefully, they would be able to conduct themselves properly until the crews returned. Though, he wasn’t going to hold to hold out hope for that. 

Assignments were given out, and phone calls made to the other sheds around the island. Whatever had happened here had happened everywhere else as well. All the engines on the island had been turned human by some unseen force. Only the engines, though, oddly enough. He gave instructions that the newly turned humans were to be looked after, then thanked god it was a Saturday and at least there weren’t as many trains running as usual.

The crews tried their best to at least give their engines a little preparation. They told them about eating, drinking, and why it was considered impolite to scratch oneself in public. Out behind the sheds was a washroom for the human crews, a perfect venue for explaining the very human act of using the restroom. Much embarrassment ensued, especially when the men realized that Emily was part of the group. Charlie rolled his eyes and took over. He had two adult children, a daughter and a son, and had seen pretty much everything. 

With the basics covered, each engine was given a billfold and strict instructions that it was to be used for food and other such needs, then one of the drivers took them into the town center of Tidmouth. Hopefully, the town would still be standing when they returned that evening.


	2. Chapter 2

At the Vicarstown rolling bridge, Hiro was waiting for the bridge to lower on the mainland side. As one of the larger, more powerful engines on the island without a regular duty, he often ran supply trains between Sodor and the mainland. Hiro and his crew had been forced to overnight on the mainland, but were now headed back with a goods train bound for Tidmouth.

Bells rang and lights flashed as the barrier arms on the bridge raised. Hiro pumped his pistons and his driving wheels began to turn, propelling him across the bridge towards Sodor on the other side. 

As he left the bridge and reached solid ground, Hiro suddenly felt as though some unseen force had picked him up and hurled him backwards. He hit something hard, pain shooting through his body. Opening weary eyes, Hiro looked up into the surprised faces of his fireman and driver. “What. What happened? And. What are the two of you doing here?”

“Hiro?” His driver gaped, staring at him with disbelief. 

“Well, yes. Who else would I –“ Hiro caught sight of two human hands, then reached up with some uncertainty to touch his face. “What has happened?”

No one knew what to say, but they couldn’t stop. They were already behind schedule and didn’t want to risk being any later to Tidmouth. Hopefully, the Fat Controller would be there, because this was one situation the driver didn’t want to try and explain over the phone. 

Hiro, meanwhile, was trying his best to stay out of the way of the driver and fireman. It wasn’t easy, he had never realized just how small his cab was. After the third or fourth time of bumping into one of the two men, his driver sighed and told him to keep watch out of one of the cab windows. This was only slightly better. The familiar view was comforting, but the long expanse of black boiler in front of him reminded Hiro of just how wrong the situation was. 

Fortunately, the Fat Controller was indeed at Tidmouth station. Hiro explained what had happened, and the man’s frown deepened. 

“So you were completely normal until you passed over the Vicarstown bridge?” He confirmed. “This must not be affecting the mainland. We shall have close the bridge and forbid travel between the mainland and Sodor for engines until we can fix what has happened.” Though Hiro did not seem hurt from his sudden change, who knew what would happened if an engine passed over to the mainland from Sodor. Maybe they would go back to normal, maybe not. Too big a chance to risk. 

 

In the Tidmouth town square, Thomas and the other engines from Tidmouth sheds had settled around a small fountain, unsure of what to do with themselves. They hadn’t spoken much since they had been left there, and were a bit frightened of moving away from the spot and getting lost. 

James was sitting and staring at his hands, a look of utter despair on his face. Edward had never seen the red engine so distraught in the time he had known him. “Are you alright, James?”

“No. No I am not alright,” The younger man replied, voice shaking, “Look at me! My beautiful red body is gone and now I am stuck like this. What if the Fat Controller can’t fix this, what if we never go back to normal?”

“He’ll fix it. He’s never let us down before.” Edward tried to be reassuring, though even he was not sure of his words. Without really thinking, Edward put a hand over James’ shoulders and pulled him closer. James turned his face into the other man’s shoulder and tried not to cry. The others pretended not to notice, and tried not to think about their friend’s words. It was a fear they all had. 

“What if he’s right, Thomas?” Percy whispered, standing close by his best friend. 

“James is just scared. The Fat Controller will fix this and we’ll go back to normal soon enough. I’m sure of it.” Thomas reassured. To try and get Percy’s mind off it, he looked around to the humans milling about the town. “Look at all these people, Percy. Have you ever seen so many? Aren’t they funny?”

The two watched as more humans than they had ever seen in one place scurried about set on their tasks. Some had armfuls of packages from shopping, others strolled hand in hand with a loved one. Mothers tried to corral groups of rowdy children, and teens huddled in corners with cigarettes in hand. 

One person caught Thomas’ eye, a very tall, older Japanese man in black clothing with gold trim. He seemed to be looking for someone, worry and confusion clear on his face. “Thomas?” He called out in a familiar voice. Very familiar in fact. 

“Hiro?” Thomas said in surprise. The other man’s face broke into a smile. 

“Thomas, thank goodness I found you. The Fat Controller said you would be here.” 

“Hiro?” Gordon looked over with some surprise, “So this . .. affliction has gotten you too. Did the Fat Controller say anything else?”

“He just gave me some money and told me to keep an eye on you all.” Hiro pulled a small fold of bills from his pocket. “He seemed very worried.”

Gordon snorted, “Hmph. As if I need looking after.”

Thomas and Hiro just laughed. 

Everyone fell silent again, watching the humans around them with faint interest. Then, Henry spoke up in a quiet voice, “So. What do we do now?”

“I think, maybe get something to eat?” Emily suggested after a moment’s silence. She felt something a little like being low on water, and assumed the others felt the same way. 

It was decided that that sounded like as good an idea as any. Better than sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. 

They went into the first restaurant they saw, not sure what they were going to find. The waitress met them when they stepped in. “Hello. How many in your party?”

“Uh,” Thomas did a quick head count, “8.”

“Right this way.” They were led through the nearly empty restaurant to a semi-circle corner booth. Sliding in, the group just managed to all fit around the table. 

“Would you like anything to drink besides water?” The waitress asked as she passed out menus. 

The group was shocked. Drinking something besides water? It was almost unthinkable. 

“Oh!” Percy had a sudden idea, “I’ve always wanted to try a milkshake. Do you have those?”

“Uh, sure. Vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?”

“Chocolate!” 

“I want one, too,” Thomas chimed in. 

“Oh, I’ve always wanted to try tea.” Emily added. “I’ll have some of that.”

“Okay,” The waitress seemed a bit surprised at their enthusiasm. “And for the rest?”

“I – I think water will do fine for us,” Edward offered after a glance at the others. 

The waitress left to get their drinks, leaving them to look over the menus. 

“I don’t know what any of this means,” Percy said after a minute reading over the menu. 

“Why do humans need so much different food?” James complained, “How are we supposed to choose?”

“Oh, look. They have Sodor Kipper,” Henry pointed to the menu, and everyone at the table laughed when James made a disgusted face. 

“Alright, here are your drinks,” Chocolate milkshakes were set in front of Thomas and Percy, while Emily got a hot cup of tea. “Are you ready to order food, or do you need a few more minutes?”

“Um,” Everyone at the table looked at each other. They were no closer to making a decision. 

“For me, I think I shall have whatever you suggest. I am not sure what to choose from the menu,” Hiro spoke up, putting the menu aside. The others quickly agreed, thinking that was a wonderful idea, and told the waitress to just pick something for each of them. Anything, as long as it was good. Though, James insisted loudly, “No Fish!”

As the waitress left, Percy took the first sip of his chocolate milkshake. His eyes went wide and he gasped. “This. Is amazing! No wonder humans love these drinks, this tastes so good.”

“Really?” Thomas drank from his, “Wow, you’re right, Percy. These are great.” He looked over at the tea sitting in front of Emily, “What about yours, Emily?”

“It’s very hot,” Emily carefully picked up her cup and took a cautious sip. The tea was still a little too hot to be comfortable, but tolerable. Emily’s eyes widened at her first experience with taste, not quite sure what to make of the sensation. “It’s. . . good! Kind of strange, but good. I wonder why all the humans are so taken with it, though.”

“Well, I know why children love these so much!” Percy sucked on his milkshake contentedly. Quickly, over half of the drink was gone. Percy suddenly stopped and clapped a hand to his forehead, “Ow, ow, ow.” 

Thomas couldn’t help but laugh at his best friend, “I think that’s what they call a ‘brain freeze’ Percy.”

Percy just groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes. Thomas sipped at his own milkshake, though much slower. The others at the table drank their water, and ended up starting a conversation about how weird humans were to drink their water cold. In the opinion of all the engines, warm water was obviously the best to drink. This conversation keep them entertained until their lunch arrived, the smell of the food causing a visceral reaction that gave them all pause. 

A dish was set in front of each engine, all different and all delicious looking. Though, as promised, there was no fish. Eagerly, they dug in. Fortunately, all knew the basics of human utensil use through years of observation. Unfortunately, they displayed varying levels of finesse, and it was inevitable that hands got involved at some point. Lunch ended up being a fairly messy affair all things considered. 

There wasn’t much time for talk with everyone so involved in eating, though a few comments were made about how inefficient it was that humans couldn’t talk and eat or drink at the same time. Soon, the table of food had been demolished in record time. The check was brought, and it took them all some time and discussion to figure out the cash they had been given. They all knew the basic function of money, of course, but had obviously never handled it themselves. 

With the check sorted out, it was time for them to leave. The group walked slowly, contemplating the new sensation of being full. “I guess it’s a little like having a full tender, just after topping off.” Henry ventured after some thought. 

Gordon snorted, “Not really.”

With nothing better to do, the engines decided to use their new forms as an opportunity to visit all the shops and buildings they’d never had a chance to see. Human culture was so foreign to them, and they marveled at the simplest things like racks of clothing and collections of cooking implements. Though Gordon grumbled and James griped, they didn’t want to separate from the group for fear of getting lost or worse. Store clerks eyed the motley group with some suspicion, but otherwise said nothing as they wandered from shop to shop. 

The only time they had any trouble was when they entered a shop that made candles, attracted by the myriad of scents wafting out into the street, and Henry had started sneezing uncontrollably. They beat a hasty retreat and the sneezing thankfully stopped, though Henry still looked rather miserable. 

“Are you alright, Henry?” Emily asked with some concern. Surprisingly, the others looked worried too. They normally didn’t worry themselves too much when the green engine felt ill, as it was a fairly regular occurrence, but who knew what could happen when a human body got sick. 

“I, don’t feel good,” Henry offered weakly. He groaned and clutched his abdomen, then suddenly staggered off to one side and hurled. 

“Henry!” The others crowded around, not sure what they could do. 

“We have to take him to Victor,” It was the only solution Thomas could think of. 

“We can’t do that, dummy,” James tried to scoff, but he was worried too, “Victor only fixes steamies, not humans.”

“Well, who fixes humans then?” Gordon demanded. 

“Humans have doctors,” Emily rolled her eyes and walked back into the candle store to ask where the nearest doctor was. 

“Is he going to be okay?” Percy asked softly, clutching Thomas’ hand. 

“He’ll be fine, Percy. Human doctors are very good,” Hiro reassured him, setting a large hand on his shoulder. 

Emily came back with the news that there was a Doctor the next street over, but Henry was now kneeling on the ground looking absolutely miserable and didn’t seem to be able to get back up. Without hesitation, Gordon reached down and lifted the smaller man into his arms. The others were a bit surprised, as Gordon was normally one of the first to tease Henry about his illness, but the big engine seemed very serious indeed. 

True to Emily’s word, there was a small doctor’s office the next street over. Gordon walked in and marched right up to the receptionist’s desk, “My friend needs to be repaired, he is sick,” Gordon boomed in his deep bass voice. 

The receptionist looked up skeptically, sure a prank was being pulled, but grew more serious at the sight of a clearly very sick Henry, “What’s wrong with him?”

“We were walking outside when he suddenly looked very ill. Then he,” Emily searched for the correct term, “threw up? And we brought him here.”

“I see. Well, I’ll have the doctor take a look at him as soon as he can. What name should I write down?” The receptionist pulled out a form and started filling it out. 

“Henry.” 

There was a long pause, “And. His last name?”

The group looked at each other. None of them had last names, there were very few engines that did. “He doesn’t have a last name.”

Another long stretch of silence before the Receptionist copied that down with a sigh, “See if you can fill this out the best you can, someone will call him up when the doctor is free.” She handed them a form and a pencil before turning away to answer a ringing phone. 

With nothing else to do, they all took seats in the waiting room and looked over the strange piece of paper. It was a bit of a surprise to see Gordon sit with Henry in his lap, but the stony expression on the big engine’s face threatened bodily harm if anyone dared make a joke about it. 

“I don’t know what any of this means,” Thomas scratched his head after reading over the form. It was asking for things like “medical history” and “allergies.”

“Here, let me see,” Edward read it as well, but could offer no further insight. “Well, they want his age and birthdate here. But, I don’t think we can write down his actual one. Henry, you were built in 1934, correct?”

Henry coughed, “No. That’s when I was rebuilt. I was first built in. . . 1920.”

“And no human would believe that.” Edward sighed, “I guess we could just make some stuff up.” He took the pencil and gamely tried to scribble in some answers to the questions on the form. It wasn’t terribly legible, since he’d never exactly had a chance to practice penmanship, but that might be for the better. If the Doctor couldn’t read it, then he couldn’t realize that they’d made it up. 

The form still wasn’t filled out a few minutes later when a nurse stepped out form a back room and called out, “Henry?”

They all stood up, which made the nurse looked very confused, “ Just Mr. . . Henry,” she clarified, “You’ll need to wait out here.”

They all wanted to protest, how could this human expect them to sit and wait in this strange place while their friend was hurting, but Henry silenced them with a pained smile. “It’s okay, I’ll be fine.” He shakily got on his own two feet and managed to follow the nurse into the back room. 

“Well, I don’t like it,” Percy frowned,” Victor doesn’t keep us from seeing our sick friends.”

“Sure he does,” Emily said reasonably, “Working engines don’t hang out in the Steamworks because we just get in the way. The doctor can’t fix Henry if we’re all milling about.”

The rest decided that this was true, even if they didn’t like it, and soon found a suitable distraction from their worry in the pile of magazines and local newspapers on the table in front of them. 

 

Henry was led into a smaller room where the walls had posters showing human insides and the small bench had a crinkly paper covering. Sitting down, he curled up again. A few times he felt like he might need to puke again, but nothing came out. Clearly, his tank was empty. 

The doctor came in and offered a friendly smile, “Hello, Henry. What seems to be the matter today?”

“Well, my middle hurts. And, I threw up outside. I really feel very ill,” Henry recounted as well as he could. 

“And when did this start?”

“About, half an hour ago? A little while after eating lunch.” He hadn’t said anything at first, knowing the other engines weren’t terribly fond of his griping, but when the pain had peaked after his sneezing fit he hadn’t been able to keep walking. 

“After lunch? Do you have any food allergies?”

“Um,” Henry didn’t recognize the word, “Allergies?”

The doctor looked at him a bit incredulously. Here sitting in front of him was a man who looked to be in his mid thirties, and he didn’t know what an allergy was? If Henry didn’t look so absolutely miserable, the doctor would think someone was pulling a prank on him. “Well, what did you have for lunch?”

It took a minute for Henry to remember what the waitress had called the dish, “Macaroni and cheese? I think.”

“I see. And has this happened when you’ve had dairy before? Like milk, cheese, or ice cream?”

“I’ve never had any of that before. This was my first time,” Henry said truthfully. Was he sick because of something he ate? It would figure that the issues caused by his early build defects would carry over in some form to this human body, wouldn’t it? He groaned and pulled his knees up to his chest. Before his rebuild, when he’d been sick almost more than he was well, Henry had just felt exhausted constantly and his whole body would often ache. Nothing like this localized, strong pain in his midsection. 

The doctor sighed, “Well, I think I know what happened. But, just to be sure, I want to take your temperature. Put this under your tongue,” He held out a little stick of wood. 

Henry was quite confused, but obligated and put the odd little piece of wood under his tongue. It tasted bad and felt funny, but he sat silently without complaint until the doctor pulled it back out. 

“Well, your temperature is normal. I think what happened is you are lactose intolerant, and having that cheese didn’t agree with you.” This made no sense to Henry, so the doctor elaborated, “It means consuming dairy products like cheese, milk, or ice cream will make you sick.”

“Is there anything you can do? Can you fix me?” Henry had started feeling a little better since throwing up, but was nowhere near 100%. 

“This isn’t something that can be fixed. For right now, I can give you some pain meds. Otherwise, I recommend steering clear of dairy products.” The doctor handed him two small pills and a paper of cup water. “Just pop those in your mouth, take a sip of water, and swallow.”

Henry did as instructed and nearly choked on the pills, but managed to get them down. And with that, he was sent back out into the waiting room to his friends. 

They all stood as Henry walked back out to them, putting aside magazines and newspapers that they had been reading to try and pass the time. Henry didn’t look fixed, though, he looked just the same as he had when he’d gone to see the doctor. 

“Well. Do you feel better?” Emily asked him. 

“The doctor said that this isn’t something that can be fixed,” Henry said miserably. “I guess certain kinds of human food make me sick.”

“So, instead of special coal, you need special human food?” James was trying very hard to not make fun of his friend, but couldn’t resist. 

The others all shot him their best unamused expressions as he chuckled at his own joke. Henry, however, was used to such things and just shook his head. Hoping that his legs would stay steady, Henry moved closer to Gordon, “Thank you for helping me, Gordon.”

The big engine spluttered, cheeks turning a bit red as he muttered something that sounded like “it was nothing.”

Once again, the group found themselves at a loss for something to do. Though Henry was now standing unassisted, they didn’t think he was going to be walking very far on his own. Which meant their previous entertainment of wandering from shop to shop puzzling over human things wasn’t much of an option. 

Fortunately for them, a solution presented itself just down the street from the doctor’s office. Standing on the corner, tall and proud, was the town library. Books were something all engines were curious about, given that they couldn’t read them on their own. Creeping inside, they gasped at the sight of shelves upon shelves of books. The building itself wasn’t terribly large, but every square inch of it was packed with bookshelves. There was so much, the group wasn’t quite sure where to start. 

Helpfully, right at the entrance was a small table containing a display of oversized photo books, what most people might think of as “coffee table books.” Thick, weighty tomes consisting mostly of very nice, arty photos. Perfect for bored engines that didn’t read very fast. 

Around the library were cushy benches set into the window sills. After making their selection, the engines found cozy corners to sit and enjoy their book. Hiro had been delighted to find a book on the Railways of Japan, and was having a very good time showing the pictures to Thomas and Percy. In turn, the two young tank engines were very excited to hear stories about Hiro’s homeland. Emily had squealed in delight to find a photobook of the Sodor United football team, and had settled off in her own little corner to page through its contents. 

Henry had pondered over the presented selection before picking something on nature photography, figuring lovely pictures of scenery would be a nice way to forget the lingering discomfort in his gut. Settling on a sunlit windowsill, he was slightly surprised when the large bulk of Gordon sat down next to him with a book on passenger trains in hand. 

“Shopping for new coaches?”

“Just thought it might be interesting,” Gordon commented, opening the book to a random page. “See if there was anyone I knew.”

“Mmhmm,” Henry opened his book as well, enjoying photos of foreign jungles and seaside sunsets. The two engines sat in companionable silence, occasionally tipping their books towards each other to show off a particularly interesting page. 

In another corner of the library, Edward found James sitting with a frown on his face and a closed book on the floor at his feet. “What’s wrong, James?”

His frown darkened, “Just. Thinking is all.”

“About what?” Edward sat down next to him, setting his own book in his lap. 

“This. Whole human thing. I don’t like it,” James crossed his arms across his chest. 

“None of us do. But there isn’t anything we can do about it, so we make do.” Edward picked up his book and showed it to the other man, “Here, look what I found. ‘A History of Sodor Island: Its Railways, Engines, and People.’ I thought it might be fun to see if I could spot myself.”

James looked mildly interested, so Edward started flipping through the pages. The first portion wasn’t terribly interesting to the engines, old illustrations of long dead humans that had once lived on the island. There was a whole section on King Godred and Ulfstead Castle, but the book was several years old and didn’t detail the latest activity at the castle or the recovery of the golden crown. 

The first engines in the book where the narrow-gauge ones that had first worked on the island. Edward lingered on the old photographs of Skarloey, Peter Sam, Sir Handle, Rheneas, Duke, and others that had and had not survived the years. He turned another page and laughed, “Oh, look. There’s me when I first arrived on the island.”

Filling the page was a slightly fuzzy black and white photograph of Edward being lowered onto the tracks from a ship. He looked rather different then, before the years of modifications and changes that had altered him from his original “Larger Seagull” appearance. “This isn’t long after I was built. The Fat Controller purchased me from the railway at Furness to work his new line.”

James looked on with interest. Edward had always been old to him, it was a surprise to see the other engine looking so young and new. “Was the island much different then?”

“Much different.” Edward reminisced, “The towns were much smaller, some stations no more than a cleared spot next to the track. There were still forests covering most of the island then.”

Another page and there was Gordon, shiny and new sitting at an almost unrecognizable Knapford station. He looked much the same, though without the characteristic frown on his face. Instead, the big engine was smiling as passengers boarded his coaches. Henry followed, and it was a bit of a shock to remember how the green engine originally looked before the dreadful crash with the Flying Kipper and subsequent rebuild. The caption mentioned that he was “a rather ill steamer, but still a hard worker.” Another photograph followed, this one in color, of Henry’s current, Black Five form. 

James grinned proudly when the next page had several photos of him. The first was an old one indeed, when he first arrived on Sodor and had still been painted black.”

“I had almost forgotten you once wore black livery,” Edward looked closer at the old photograph, remembering the accident that had nearly wrecked James and earned him his new color. 

“Yes, well. I much prefer being red,” James seemed caught up in memories as well, looking through their history like this, “The railway I came from, all the engines wore the same livery. Many were the same build type too. I was an experiment, the only one built as a 2-6-0 instead of an 0-6-0. The other engines hated me for it. I never wanted to be like them, so concerned with looking exactly alike. When I came here, the first thing I wanted was to be painted like no one else was.”

“I see.” Edward stayed quiet, continuing to turn the pages. This was the first time James had ever talked about his history before Sodor, and Edward felt privileged to have heard such a personal story.


	3. Chapter 3

Hours later, the engines were abruptly pulled from their books by a library-wide announcement. “Attentions patrons, the library will be closing in ten minutes.”

Looking outside, it was clear that the sun was starting to set. Which meant it was time for them to return to Tidmouth sheds to meet their drivers for the evening. Their books were set on the table under the large “Return Books Here” sign, and they headed out the door. From there, it was a careful matter of retracing their steps back to the sheds. Past the doctor’s office, the candle shop, the restaurant, the town square fountain, and finally back at the sheds. 

At Tidmouth, the engines had just been returned to their sheds. The last back was the bright red body of James, still on the turntable. As they watched, the turntable came to a stop and the engine chuffed back into the center berth. 

“Ah, there you all are.” The Fat Controller walked over to the group, “I trust your day went alright?”

A noncommittal shrug and mutter was his response. The day hadn’t gone badly, after all. They were all still in one piece and relatively unhurt, though Henry had started sniffling unpleasantly on their walk back. 

“Good. Each of you will be going home with either your driver, or fireman. They have a spare bed for you to sleep on. Hopefully, things will be fixed by morning.”

It was mostly drivers who had offered to take home one of the new humans. They had the longest relationship with the engines, and the hope was that the engines would feel more comfortable with them. The only exception was Hiro, who would instead be staying with Edward’s fireman Sidney because his own crew was on the other side of the island. 

Once every engine had been paired to a human, they went to waiting cars and back to homes across the island. Later, every engine would agree that travelling by car was an awful experience and that going by rail was far superior. 

James was silent for most of the ride to his driver’s house, only speaking up to voice complaint at harsh stops and tight corners. Finally, they arrived at an unassuming town house surrounded by blocks of identical homes. 

“Home sweet home,” James’ driver, a man in his early thirties named Rick, walked up the short path to the door and stepped inside, “The missus already has dinner going for us. And I also have a six year old daughter named Elsie who is apparently very excited to meet you.” 

“Of course, everyone is excited to see me,” James commented, trying to cover up his apprehension at walking into a completely unfamiliar world. 

The inside of the house was small, but cozy, and filled with the smell of cooking dinner. Rick’s wife was a slight, cheery woman who greeted James with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then sat him down at the dinner table and piled food on his plate. Elsie, meanwhile, was a little chatterbox that kept up a stream of questions directed at their visitor even through a mouth full of food. James hadn’t quite mastered the human ability of talking with your mouth full, and so stayed mostly quiet through the meal. This did not deter the six year old one bit. 

With the meal finished, the family migrated to the living room where a television sat for their evening ritual. James, however, was feeling tired and rather grumpy. It had been a long day, and there was one thing the red engine always did to wind down after a tiring day. “Driver,” He announced, “I would like a wash down.”

Rick’s wife glanced at her husband curiously, but Rick waved her off and stood up with a sigh. “Alright James, alright. Come on, the washroom is down the hall.”

The human’s idea of a washroom was not what James expected. It was a small, enclosed space with off-white walls and a tile floor. No water tanks or hoses anywhere to be seen. 

“Humans do not wash each other.” Rick began, pulled back the curtain around the tub and turning the facet on, “You are perfectly capable of doing it yourself. When the tub is done filling, turn the water off with this handle. Soap and shampoo are on the shelf there, and we’ve got towels there on the wall. I’ll be in the living room if you need anything.” With that, he left the room and shut the door behind him. 

James frowned, not liking the idea of washing himself at all. It took a few minutes for the tub to fill, the warm water filling the air with steam. That, at least, was a familiar comfort. When it was full, James turned off the water as he had been shown and slid into the pool of water hesitantly. Normally, ending up in a body of water was something the engines tried to avoid, and James remembered vividly the last time the last time he had gone off the rails and ended up in a pond. He had to admit, though, the warm water here was rather comforting to his tired body. 

The soap was in odd little bottles. James squirted a healthy amount onto a small brush and scrubbed at himself briskly. This created lots of suds, but it didn’t feel anywhere near as good as the sensation of a brush against his warm boiler. Scrubbing at his face with it was actually painful, so he threw the brush back down and leaned back until his hair touched the water. 

After a while in the tub, the water began to cool and James figured it was time to get out. He stood up, gripping the shower curtain rod, and immediately any feeling of comfort vanished. Wet clothing clung to his body, adding several pounds of weight, and wet hair hung down in his eyes. Water dripped off him in vast amounts, creating an enormous puddle on the floor that made his feet slip and slide. James wiped at his bangs with a sopping sleeve, then opened the door and stomped out, “DRIVER!”

Rick had been sitting on the couch enjoying the programme, and looked up wearily at the angry cry. There, in the hallway, was James. Still wearing all of his clothing, and soaking wet. Rick sighed and went to clean up the mess. It was his fault, he supposed, for assuming the engine would know to remove his clothing before getting into the bath. James wasn’t like a child, Rick reminded himself, he was a cranky, vain steam engine that knew absolutely nothing about living as a human. Even if Rick did usually consider his relationship with James as being like an odd cross between a friend and an annoying teenage nephew. 

Leading James back into the washroom, Rick threw a few towels on the floor so they wouldn’t slip and pulled the drain on the tub. While it was draining, he went about removing James’ wet clothing. “Humans don’t wash with their clothes on,” He explained, “You have to take them off, then get in the bath. I’ll guess I’ll have to give you a wash after all, you vain engine.”

All the clothing was removed and put into the sink where they could drip away without any bother, then the bathtub was refilled. It was rather awkward, being in a small room with a completely naked adult man, and Rick wasn’t quite sure where to look as he helped James back into the tub and picked up the shampoo. James, meanwhile, wasn’t self-conscious at all and was really rather happy to be getting a proper bath this time. He hummed as Rick massaged the shampoo into his scalp, feeling all the muscles in his body melt at the attention. For the first time all day, he didn’t completely hate his human body. Even when Rick made him scrub himself with the soap and brush. 

“That was very nice. Thank you, driver,” James didn’t often show gratitude, but was feeling quite pleased with the attention as he got out of the tub and was toweled off. 

“You know, you can call me Rick,” The man handed James a towel so the engine could dry his torso himself, then attacked James’ reddish brown hair with another. 

“Okay. Rick,” It was very odd to James. The engines almost never called their crews by name, and some engines didn’t know the names of their crews at all. It was a fact of life that any engine would long outlive their human crews, and most of them had been attended to by many different humans throughout their life. 

“Alright, you’re dry.” Rick helped James wrap the towel around his waist for modesty, then picked up the heap of wet clothes in the sink. “You stay right there. I’m going to take these to the laundry room and bring you some pajamas to wear for the evening.”

James was appalled by the plain white cotton pajama shirt and pants brought to him, hating the idea of wearing anything that wasn’t red, but was told that this was all there was and that he had to wear them or face getting locked in the bathroom for the evening. Reluctantly, James put them on and slunk out into the living room to watch the television with the other humans. 

Across town, Gordon’s driver Sam arrived at his small apartment, a small one-bedroom loft. “It’s not much, but its home,” He commented as he unlocked the door. “I don’t have a spare room or anything, so you’ll have to crash on the couch. My boyfriend should be home soon, so I’ll start some dinner.”

“Boyfriend?” Gordon commented with some surprise as he sat down on the rather ratty old couch. 

“Yes. Is that a problem?” Sam opened the fridge and looked inside, wondering what would be good to reheat. 

“No.” What humans did in their spare time wasn’t a concern to Gordon, he was just a bit surprised. He had been with this driver for several years now and had no idea that the man was gay. “Just. Never knew that about you.”

“It’s not something I talk about much,” Sam fished out some leftovers that still smelled decent and plopped them into a pot on the stove. He then retrieved a beer, feeling he deserved a drink after such a weird day. “Do you want anything to drink?” 

“Water is fine.” 

“You know, you can drink something else. Try new things,” Sam teased, but filled a glass of water anyway. He knew Gordon was stubborn to a fault and often wasn’t fond of new things. The big engine wasn’t showing it, but Sam knew he was probably reeling from being thrust into such an unfamiliar situation. “So how’d the day go?”

Gordon groaned and accepted the glass, leaning back into the couch, “Being human is awful. I don’t know how you do it.”

Sam just sipped at his beer and listened to Gordon complain. After a crazy day, this was at least a refreshing moment of normalcy. 

Halfway through his second beer, the apartment door opened and Sam’s boyfriend Aaron entered. Aaron was everything Sam wasn’t, tall, skinny, and flamboyant. He sighed dramatically as he closed the door behind him, “Babe, you wouldn’t believe the day I had today.”

“I was about to say the same thing to you.” Sam gestured towards Gordon, who was looking on with a confused expression. “Meet Gordon.”

“Well, it isn’t like you to bring home a hunk,” Aaron grinned and sat down on the couch next to Gordon, who had turned bright red at the attention. “You another railroad man?”

Sam was having a hard time not busting up laughing. “You could say that. Hon, you remember that the engine I drive is named Gordon? Well. . .”

Aaron looked between the two, “I’m not sure I follow.”

“Something has turned all the engines on the island into humans. Gordon is going to be staying with us tonight since he doesn’t have anywhere else to sleep.”

As his boyfriend gaped, Sam finally gave in to the urge to laugh and headed into the kitchen to take dinner out of the oven. 

 

Edward was quiet as he drove home with Charlie. The car ride was unpleasant, a drastic change from the smooth rails he had spent his life on, so he tried to focus on the unfamiliar scenery that was flashing by outside. If there was any advantage to the strange situation that they were in, it was that the engines had a chance to actually see the towns that they had served for so many years, rather than just rolling by on the other side of a fence. 

“So, how was the day?” Charlie asked after long minutes of uncomfortable silence. He had worked with Edward for many years, and felt he knew the engine as a close friend. However, small talk was never something that factored into their relationship. 

Edward sighed, “I suppose it went alright. We ate lunch, which was fun. I had, I think the waitress called it grilled cheese? But then Henry got sick, and we were all really worried. Humans are so fragile.”

So that’s what had him so quiet. Edward was always one to think of others before himself. “Henry will be fine. His driver will take care of him. And hey, we humans are tougher than we look.”

That brought a small smile. “I guess you’re right. We had a doctor look at Henry, but he couldn’t fix the problem. We went to the library after that and read for the rest of the afternoon. James wasn’t feeling well, so I sat with him and we looked through a history book about Sodor.”

“James? Never figured that one for much of a reader.” Charlie, like most drivers, had at least a passing acquaintance with the other engines. Though, there wasn’t a single person on the island of Sodor that didn’t know how much of a vain, self-centered engine James was. 

“No, but he does like to look at pictures of himself.” Edward laughed softly. James had indeed gotten very excited whenever he spotted himself in a photograph in the book, though he had occasionally complained about not being the centerpiece of most. “That book brought back a lot of memories. I wish I could’ve shown it to the others. There was even a photograph of when I was first delivered.”

It always humbled Charlie when he remembered how much longer his friend had lived. Scores of other drivers had come and gone, some probably long dead now. It was no wonder the engines often seemed aloof and detached from the humans around them. 

They arrived at their destination, a small house on the outskirts of Tidmouth with a small yard and a well tended flower garden. Charlie’s kids had long since moved away, and he now lived alone with his wife. It would be nice to have someone else in the house for a little while. 

“Welcome home, sweetie,” A voice called from the kitchen as they stepped in through the door. Dinner was clearly on the way, and the whole house filled with the smell. Edward’s stomach growled in appreciation.

“We have a guest, dear,” Charlie headed back for the kitchen, “I believe you’ve met Edward.”

Edward grinned and waved a little. He had indeed met his driver’s wife, several years before, and hoped she remembered him, “Hello Mrs. Sand.”

“Edward?! Goodness, darling. What happened?” To say she was surprised would be an understatement. After all, the last time she had seen the engine he had been made of metal and weighed several tons. 

“We’ve been turned human,” Edward shrugged, unsure of what else to say. “I hope you don’t mind my staying here.”

“No, of course not, dear. You can have the guest room. Our eldest son was rather tall, I think his old clothes will fit you. But first, dinner.”


	4. Chapter 4

The sun set across Sodor, and the former engines settled into their temporary beds. On the outskirts of Tidmouth, Henry was having difficulty falling asleep on the pull-out sofa he had been offered. Besides the general weirdness of the situation and his new body, he also kept sniffling and sometimes it felt a little hard to breathe. Normally he’d blame such problems on ash buildup, which was often an issue with his poorly built firebox, but now he had no idea. Because of this, he was awake when he heard footsteps elsewhere in the house, and the sound of a door opening and closing.

“Driver?” Henry sat up and squinted, trying to see through the dark house. 

“Shhh, it’s alright.” His driver Ted, appeared by the sofa, whispering softly. “Didn’t mean to wake you. It’s time to go take the Kipper, I’ve got to get to the sheds. You can go back to sleep.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.” Henry confessed, “Can I come with you?”

Ted shrugged in the dark, “I don’t see why not. You know the route as well as anybody else. But you’d better hurry, I’m late.”

Henry was still wearing his clothes from the day, since Ted was a head shorter than him and didn’t have anything that fit, so all he had to do was put his shoes back on. Ted obligingly knelt down to tie said shoes, then they were out the door and back at Tidmouth sheds. 

The sheds were unnaturally quiet. There was no deep rumble of Gordon’s snores to vibrate the rafters or the soft mutter of Percy talking in his sleep. Instead, the only sound was of cooling metal from the other engines, and the soft hiss of steam from Henry’s own body. Jacob, the fireman, had beat them there and already had the firebox roaring. 

Satisfied that the fire was taken care of, Ted took an oil can and started the methodical process of tending to all the oil ports on the locomotive. After twenty years, he had this down to a fine art. Henry followed along behind, watching as his driver quickly but carefully oiled each of the moving parts. This was a routine he knew as well, although by feel rather than sight. It was usually his favorite part of the morning, the feel of nice, cool oil working its way into every joint and bearing. He suddenly missed it terribly. 

“Alright, Henry old boy,” Ted looked up at the engine’s smokebox, then caught himself and instead directed his gaze at the man standing next to him. “We’re ready to go.”

Henry obligingly climbed up onto the footplate with the other two men and they rolled out of the shed into the night. 

The first stop was the coal hopper, then to the water tower to top off the tender. Henry took a sip of the cup of coffee he had been offered, grimacing at the bitter taste, and wished he was back in his rightful body. 

There was very little to see from the windows of the cabin as they rushed through the night towards Brendam Docks. The light all the way at the front of the smokebox lit up the tracks ahead, but left the passing scenery a dark blur. Instead, Henry focused his gaze inward and watched as Ted manned the many gauges and levers of his interior while Jacob fed coal into the blazing firebox. 

Reaching the docks, Henry perked up at the sound of a familiar whistle. Outside, Porter was shunting the trucks of the Flying Kipper into position for them. But looking closer revealed that the small tank engine was just a dead shell, and that Porter himself wasn’t there. Probably curled up asleep on some warm couch or bed somewhere.

“Well, well. Look at you Henry.” Cranky commented from his lofty perch, unaffected by whatever strange magic had changed the engines. “Enjoying being a little human?”

“Oh, Good evening Cranky.” Henry sighed, “No, not really. I’d much rather be an engine again.”

Cranky lowered down the last pallet with a thud, and both of them watched as the human dockworkers hustled to get the crates transferred to the trucks. “I’m sure this will get sorted out soon enough, you’ll see.” In a quieter voice, he added, “Don’t tell anyone this, but I’m actually starting miss Salty’s stupid stories.”

That brought a smile to Henry’s face. “My lips are sealed.” He promised as they backed up to the trucks and were coupled up.

Rolling down the tracks with the long line of rather smelly trucks behind them, Henry tucked himself into a corner out of the way and closed his eyes. The clickity clack of wheels on the tracks was a great comfort to the former engine, and he soon found himself nodding off. Both driver and fireman noticed this, and tried to do their jobs as quietly as they could to avoid waking him back up.

The train rolled through the Sodor countryside, stopping at stations to unload cargo before continuing on to the next. Henry stirred whenever the train stopped, coughing a bit before settling back down. Outside, the sounds of crates being unloaded and men moving about become nothing but background noise. 

“His back’s gonna hurt like hell tomorrow,” Jacob whispered quietly to Ted, glancing over at where Henry’s tall body was awkwardly tucked into his corner.

“At least he’s getting some sleep.” Ted responded, nudging open the throttle as they slowly moved away from the station. As Henry’s body shook with a cough, the driver frowned, “I worry about that cough though. What if something’s seriously wrong?”

“Maybe take him to the doctor if it isn’t better by tomorrow,” Jacob suggested, throwing more coal on the fire. Up ahead was the Ballahoo tunnel, better known as “Henry’s tunnel” after the infamous incident many years before in the railway’s early years. Henry had never quite recovered from that one, and still got nervous in small, dark spaces. Ted was glad he was asleep. 

They flew through the tunnel and the air was suddenly full of coal soot and steam as the narrow confines of the tunnel forced the exhaust from the funnel down into the cab. Henry’s coughing suddenly increased in volume as he clutched at his chest. He continued wheezing even after they left the tunnel and the air cleared, bending over as he tried to get air into his lungs. 

“Henry!” Jacob knelt down beside him as Ted urged the engine on towards the next station, “Are you alright? Just try to breathe.”

Henry couldn’t answer, nor could he breathe. Tears fell from his eyes as he tried to force air through his tight throat, but try as he might he couldn’t seem to get enough. 

“Is he okay?” Ted asked, not daring take his eyes off the rails as they approached the station and began to slow.

“No. He’s having some kind of attack. I think we need to take him to the hospital.”

The train came to a harsh stop at the station, Ted and Jacob hefting Henry off the footplate and onto the platform. The former engine could barely struggle, and his limbs were limp. One of the workmen ran over and offered his car to take Henry to the nearby hospital. 

“You go,” Jacob insisted, “He knows you best anyway. I’ll call in another driver to finish this run.” 

Ted nodded as they quickly got Henry into the car and sped off towards the hospital. 

 

All was quiet in the small townhouse of engine driver Rick. James had finally gotten to sleep on the small child’s bed decorated with pink princesses, Elsie having been shifted to her parent’s room to give the former engine a place to sleep. He gave a loud snore and rolled over, dreaming of pulling coaches in the sun, when the ringing of a telephone disturbed the quiet darkness of the house. 

Rick groaned loudly and fumbled for the bedside telephone. “What?”

“Rick? It’s Jacob. We were out taking the Flying Kipper when Henry had some kind of attack. Ted took him to the hospital. Can you come finish the run with me? I’m at Ballahoo station.”

Rick really didn’t want to get out of his nice warm bed and drive all the way to Ballahoo, but didn’t have much choice. He knew the route best, after Henry’s crew of course, and was the usual back up for the Kipper when Henry wasn’t available. 

Pulling on his boots, Rick wrote a quick note for his wife and left the bedroom as quietly as he could. Stopping at the next door down the hall, he eased it open and had to suppress his laughter at the sight of James all curled up in a princess blanket and snoring loudly. He really did need to record the engine sleeping one of these nights, if only so James could stop protesting about how he “most certainly did not snore.”

“Come on, lazy bones, up and at ‘em.” Rick peeled back the blankets, grinning when James shivered and curled up further. “Henry’s had an accident, we need to go take the Kipper.”

James groaned and didn’t open his eyes, “Make Emily take it. Or Thomas. I hate pulling trucks.”

Rick shook his head. Technically he didn’t need to bring James with him, but he was still rather cross at having been woken up at ass o’clock in the morning and really James deserved some payback for all the years of bitching he’d made his driver endure. “No can do. It’s all you tonight, James.” He grabbed the man under his armpits and hauled him out of the bed. 

James cried out in confusion as he was suddenly pulled to his feet, having forgotten all about his human form as he dreamed. It all came rushing back rather quickly, though, as he swayed on his feet and tried not to fall back over.

“There ya go. I’ll fetch your clothes from the drier. Meet me in the living room. And, maybe pull a comb through your hair, it looks ridiculous.”

Frowning as he ran a hand through his reddish brown hair, half of which had decided to stand on-end sometime in his sleep, James yawned and wandered out into the living room where his boots were sitting by the door on a drying stand. It took some effort from his driver to wrestle him back into pants, shirt, and jacket, then they were out the door and on their way to Ballahoo. 

It took quite a while to drive across the island, and the sun was starting to rise to the east when Rick arrived at the station. The green Black Five locomotive was still there, Jacob resting on its footplate waiting for them. When he spotted them walking across the platform, Jacob leapt to his feet and went to stoke the fire back up, “Oh, Rick. Thank goodness. This load is really starting to smell.”

“I’ll say,” James said with some disgust. He had found one advantage to having hands, and was pinching his nose shut. 

“Oh. And you brought James,” Jacob was less enthused about that, but didn’t say anything more as Rick checked over all the gauges and got them ready to go.

James stood back and watched them work, feeling more than a little creeped out by the whole thing. Never in his long life did he imagine he would one day be able to stand –inside- one of his friends. 

The rest of the run went without incident, except for the memorable stop when one of the workmen decided to have a little fun and threw a fish at James. It hit him right in the face, and Rick would cherish the resulting screams for the rest of his life. 

By the time they got back to Tidmouth sheds, the sun had fully risen and the other engines were getting steam up for the day. The turntable spun slowly, then Rick carefully backed the locomotive into one of the berths. The Fat Controller was already there, assigning tasks for the day, and quickly walked over to address them when he saw them come in. 

“I heard what happened to Henry, Ted called me this morning,” Sir Topham reassured, “He’s in the hospital, but is doing well and should be discharged today. I’m going over to see him right after this.”

Rick and Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to know their friend was okay. 

“Thank you for coming in to help with the run, Rick. I’ve re-arranged the schedules so you won’t have any trains until the evening. Go home and get some rest. You too, Jacob.” 

Both men nodded and went to secure their engine before heading back home. They squeezed into Jacob’s car, James included, since Rick’s car was still at Ballahoo, and the fireman dropped them both off on his way home. 

Exhausted in a way he’d never known before, James collapsed back onto his borrowed bed without even bothering to take off his shoes and was almost instantly back asleep. His driver soon copied him, though Rick at least had the presence of mind to remove his shoes and soot-covered clothing before getting back into bed with his wife.


	5. Chapter 5

Henry groaned softly as he awoke, feeling rather sore all over and very strange. There was something strapped over his face that was rather uncomfortable, though he was breathing well for the first time in ages, and he couldn’t feel the rails under his wheels or hear the sleeping noises of the other engines. Just a soft beeping sound and the whirr of machines.

“Henry, are you alright, lad?” 

That was the Fat Controller. Henry opened his eyes and felt very confused indeed when he saw the portly man looking –down- at him. Next to his owner was his driver, looking equally concerned. “Sir? Driver? What?” His voice was muffled by whatever was strapped over his face. Henry reached a hand up to his sore head, then froze at the sight of his fingers. Right. He was human, not an engine. Suddenly, all of the previous night came back to him. They had gone through the tunnel when suddenly he hadn’t been able to breathe anymore. He had fought for air, before blacking out. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. It’s like the Steamworks, but for humans.” The Fat Controller tried to explain it in a way that Henry could understand, “Do you understand what happened?”

“I remember. Not being able to breathe.” Henry felt the odd mask covering his mouth and nose with cautious fingers. “What is this?”

“That’s there to help you breathe,” Ted reached over and carefully slipped it off Henry’s face, “I think it’s okay to take off. But say something if you have trouble breathing again.”

Henry took an experimental breath and felt fine, telling the others so, and carefully pushed himself into a sitting position. He wasn’t sure he liked this “hospital” place very much. It wasn’t anything like the Steamworks. There, the air was filled with the happy sounds of workmen chatting, heavy machinery moving, and Kevin dropping things. And, of course, Victor was always there with a friendly word and a smile. There was none of that here, just off-white walls, a white floor, and strange beeping machines. 

Meanwhile, Ted and the Fat Controller were talking quietly. “The doctor says it was an asthma attack, and wants to put him on medication. Are you any closer to getting them back to normal?”

Sir Topham sighed, “Not really.” He admitted, “I’ve talked to everyone I know. Some other railway owners have mentioned similar incidents in their history, and everything always went back to normal eventually. But there doesn’t seem to be a set time. We just have to wait.”

Both men looked back at Henry, who was gazing around the room with an expression of mild confusion. The hospital gown and stark white surroundings only helped make him look more ill. 

“I just worry. Yes, he gets sick sometimes as an engine, but nothing like this. Usually it’s just a case of bad coal, or ash buildup. Maybe a blocked flue.” Ted twisted his cap in his hands, “You know he’s also lactose intolerant? And the doctor thinks he might have hay fever too, apparently he’s starting to get a rash.”

The Fat Controller was surprised. Whatever magic had affected the engines clearly hadn’t been kind to Henry. 

Henry was discharged a little while later, since nothing was seriously wrong with him, and Ted was given an emergency inhaler to carry just in case. On the car ride home, Henry seemed rather sullen and withdrawn. 

“I’m sorry,” Henry finally offered, “I guess I make as poor a human as I do an engine.”

Ted was surprised. Though the engine often complained about feeling ill, the driver had never heard him be so negative before. “You are not a poor engine.” He said sternly, “Or a poor human. You might get sick sometimes, but that doesn’t make you any less useful. In fact, I’d say you work just as hard as any other engine, even harder than some, even though you’re ill. And that is very impressive indeed.”

Henry looked very surprised at that, but a small smile grew on his face. “Thank you, driver.”

 

Gordon hadn’t had a particularly good night either. He had been looking forward to sleeping all alone away from the chatter and noise of the other engines, but it turned out his driver’s apartment wasn’t exactly quiet at night. The walls were thin, and he could hear the occupants of the other apartments as he lay in the darkened living room. Some kind of yelling match was happening on the floor below, and there was an odd thumping and squeaking sound from the apartment above. Added to the fact that he was much too tall and broad to comfortably fit on the old couch, and it took quite a while for Gordon to get to sleep. 

He had only just nodded off when he shifted his weight and came off the couch completely, hitting the floor with a thump. At this point, Gordon was too tired to care anymore and remained on the floor, only moving to pull down the pillow as well. 

The next morning, Sam wandered out of his bedroom in a bleary eyed haze, intent on getting to the kitchen for his morning cup of coffee. The living room was dark, the curtains tightly shut to keep out the ambient light that streamed in from outside streetlamps at night. Sam, however, had lived in the apartment for years and knew his way to the kitchen by feel even while still half asleep. He was very surprised, then, when he tripped over something that moved and grunted irritably. 

“Gordon?” Sam fumbled for the lamp on the end-table and the light illuminated the large, blanket wrapped lump on the floor. “What are you doing down there?”

“The couch is too small” Gordon grumbled, voice muffled by the pillow his face was buried in.

Though his driver felt a bit sorry for him, Sam couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Gordon curled up in a blanket burrito on the floor. “Well, come on. I’m about to make coffee, and you look like you could use some.”

It took a few minutes for Gordon to detangle himself, and by the time he slunk into the kitchen there was a cup of coffee sitting on the table for him. Gordon took an experimental sniff, then carefully tipped back the mug and took a swallow. The liquid was very hot and rather bitter, making him splutter in surprise, but it wasn’t too bad and certainly made him feel more awake. Plus, his driver practically lived on the stuff, so it had to have some kind of benefit. 

Not long after Aaron stumbled out of the bedroom as well, still looking very tired and wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants low on his hips. 

“Morning, handsome,” Aaron slid a hand across Gordon’s back as he entered the kitchen. The engine stiffened in surprise, and there was a loud crack as his coffee cup shattered in his clenched fist. Fortunately, he had already finished off the coffee in it. 

“Aaron!” Sam admonished his boyfriend, coming over to collect the broken cup before Gordon cut himself on the sharp ceramic shards. “You know it makes people uncomfortable when you do that.”

“Sorry, baby,” Aaron was an irrepressible flirt, but normally nothing worse than mild embarrassment was the result. He gave his boyfriend a kiss before opening the fridge to locate breakfast, “You might want to feed our guest something besides coffee, though.”

“Oh, right,” Sam wasn’t very efficient in the mornings, usually not feeling fully awake until after his second cup of coffee and sometimes not until he’d finished Gordon’s morning oiling. Speaking of which, “Shit, I’m late. The Fat Controller will kill me if I’m late with the morning express. Gotta go, babe,” He kissed Aaron on the cheek, grabbed his lunch pail, and ran out the door. 

“So,” Aaron said after a long pause, “Eggs okay?”

“I guess?” Gordon wasn’t entirely thrilled at the prospect of suddenly being left alone without his driver in the company of an unfamiliar human. 

“Sorry about earlier,” Aaron offered as he cracked a couple eggs into a pan on the stove. “Normally, flirting with straight men just earns me embarrassed sputtering. Never had a man shatter a coffee cup over me.”

Gordon remained silent, thinking about just how strange humans were. With their touching and kissing and such. Engines, who couldn’t do more than touch buffers with each other, didn’t get involved in such things. 

 

In another small apartment across Tidmouth, Emily slowly struggled towards awareness. Usually an engine was awoken by their fires being stoked, waking up as a human was proving to be much more difficult. Managing to climb out of the camping cot she had spent the night on, Emily shuffled towards the bathroom. The door was open, but the room was currently occupied. Her driver, who lived by himself, wasn’t used to company and had completely forgotten about his guest. 

Emily was suddenly shocked into the waking world by the sight of her driver with his pants pulled down as he jabbed a needle into his thigh. “Driver?!”

“Jesus!” Her driver, a man in his early thirties named Dennis, jumped and hastily pulled his pants back up, tossing the spent needle none too gently on the counter. “Emily!”

“Why were you hurting yourself?” Emily asked with concern, looking at the very sharp and pointy needle on the counter. What kind of human would purposely stab themselves with a sharp object? 

“It’s a hormone injection, I take it once a week.” Dennis pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered just how he was going to explain what hormones were to a steam engine. “Look, I’ll let you use the toilet, then meet me on the couch. I’ll. Try to explain it to you.”

Emily did as she was instructed and found her driver sitting on the couch a few minutes later, looking very nervous and fidgeting with his keyring. 

“Look. Okay. I wasn’t hurting myself.” Dennis started off, trying to ease the look of worry on Emily’s face. “Well, maybe it hurts a little bit. But I’m used to it! I’ve been doing this for ten years. There’s something that some humans have that’s called Testosterone. It’s, well, it’s a thing that my body doesn’t make on its own. So, I have to inject it.”

“Oh.” Emily didn’t quite get it, but wanted to seem like she understood.” Test-osterone? That’s something sports players have, right? I think I’ve read about it.”

“Well.” God, this was possibly the most awkward conversation he’d ever had in his life. Even worse than coming out to his last girlfriend had been. “Some of them do? Most of the guy sports players anyway. Usually the girls don’t, but some do. It’s complicated, okay? Just, if you see me with a needle, I’m not hurting myself. Just adding something to my body that I need and don’t have.”

“Right.” Emily nodded, still completely lost. Most engines had a very loose grasp on the difference between human men and women, and adding in the abstract concept of “hormones” had gotten the poor engine quite confused. “Is there that much of a difference between human girls and guys then? I just thought they wore different clothes.”

Dennis groaned and wondered what he’d done in a past life to deserve this. 

 

James wasn’t the only engine that had been forced to sleep on a too-small child’s bed. Hiro was awkwardly curled up on a bed shaped like a race car, motionless and silent as he slept. He was therefore rather surprised when he was rudely awakened by a loud battle cry and a heavy weight landing with some force right on his middle. 

“Wake up, mister!”

Hiro grunted as he hit his head on the headboard of the bed, and opened his eyes to see one of Sidney Hever’s young sons sitting right on his midsection. The boy’s twin was at the foot of the bed, tugging at the engine’s feet, while their younger sister stood staring at him with a dolly in her hands. 

“Good morning,” Hiro managed to smile even through the dull pain in his head. “Will you let me get up?”

The young boy scrambled off Hiro, but three sets of eyes watched as he slowly sat up and stretched his stiff back. Then, came the questions. 

“Are you from another country?” “Why are you so tall?” “Why do you talk so funny?” 

Hiro chuckled, amused by their enthusiasm. “Not so fast, I can only answer one at a time. Yes, I am from another place, an island very far away from this one. And I didn’t always speak English, I also speak another language.”

The three children shifted so that they were sitting on the floor, paying rapt attention to Hiro as he spoke. The older man had hit his stride, telling them stories and legends from his homeland. Sidney arrived a few minutes later, to summon the children and his guest to breakfast, and paused in the doorway when he found all three kids absolutely enthralled by one of Hiro’s stories. Sidney waiting for the story to be done, finding the lilting sound of Hiro’s accented voice surprisingly soothing. Before another tale could get started, Sidney called everyone into the dining room to get their food. The fireman made a mental note, though, to spend more time around the Japanese engine. 

 

James’ awakening by a small child was a little less rude, as he was slowly brought to awareness by a someone tugging at his hand and a little voice whispering, “Wake up, Mr. James. Wake up.”

“Hnn, what is it?” James slowly shifted and sat up, untangling himself from the pink blankets of the bed. Before him stood Elsie, wearing a pink and white ruffled princess dress with lots of lace and ribbon. She also had a little crown upon her head and a wand in hand. 

“You have been invited to a royal tea party,” Elsie announced, drawing herself up as regally as she could. 

“Alright?” James was slightly confused, but went along with it. Though he was often rather irritable and rude, James, like all engines, was instilled with a deep-seated love for children and a desire to please them as best he could. Standing up, he did his best to brush some of the soot off his clothing and followed the young girl over to wear a small table had been set up with a toy tea set and several stuffed animals seated in small chairs. 

“Hmm, that won’t do. You have to be prettier to join the party. Like a princess!” Elsie dug around in her toy chest for something more suitable for James to wear to her tea party. Triumphantly, she came up with a pink tulle tutu and a silver tiara. Fortunately the waistband of the tutu was quite elastic, and, with some effort, James managed to get it over his head and settled down about his hips. Then, he knelt down so that Elsie could settle the tiara on his head. 

“Much better!” She declared, “Now, you are a princess! Sit, and we shall discuss Royal things!”

James did as he was told and sat cross-legged on the floor at the little table, listening with some amusement as Elsie prattled on about kingdoms and castles and unicorns as she pretended to sip from an empty teacup. He felt a little silly, wearing a pink tutu and being called a princess, but Elsie seemed happy and that’s what mattered. And besides, it’s not like any of the other engines were there to see him anyway. 

His driver, however, was. Rick had peered into Elsie’s room, intending to wake James for breakfast, and had to quickly stifle his laughter at the sight that greeted him. On the one hand, he was glad that James was getting along well with Elsie, on the other hand this scene was perfect blackmail material. He quickly snuck back with a camera to snap a photograph, then sent his wife to interrupt the party instead. A few minutes later James emerged, still wearing tutu and tiara, to sit down at the breakfast table. Rick was turning red from trying to contain his laughter, but his wife shot him a glare that clearly said “don’t you dare” and so the engine driver said nothing at all about his engine’s new fashion statement.


	6. Chapter 6

At Tidmouth sheds, the former engines had all been gathered in the small crew break room that stood near the shed. James’ fireman had been chosen to watch over them, since he didn’t have anything to do until after noon, though the job didn’t entail much. Only about half the engines were there, and they seemed to be perfectly alright sitting and talking to each other about how their nights had gone staying with their drivers. 

Everyone looked up when the door opened and Emily entered, face a bit flushed. “Hello everyone! You’ll never believe what driver told me about this morning.”

James’ fireman looked up from his magazine when he heard Emily say something about “hormones” and immediately decided he didn’t want to know. 

Hiro was the next to arrive, followed by James and Henry near lunch time. Soon, the only one left missing was Gordon. 

“Alright, does anyone know where Gordon is?” Sir Topham Hatt frowned as he stepped into the break room. He had spent quite some time last night organizing an activity to keep the engines busy during the day and out of trouble, and now one of them had up and disappeared. The big, blue number 4 engine was missing from the sheds, so clearly Gordon’s driver had come and gone already. 

“I guess I could call his house?” Ted offered, having followed Henry into the break room. “His, uh, boyfriend should still be home I think.” The engine driver went over to the wall phone in the corner and dialed up Sam’s house. After a moment, he shook his head and came back, “Sam ran out of the house and left Gordon behind. The idiot. Sam’s boyfriend said he’ll drop off Gordon.”

With that settled, Ted went back to sit by Henry. Ever since the engine had been released from the hospital his driver had been hovering. It was a little annoying, having his driver panic every time he so much as coughed, and Henry was a little glad that Ted hadn’t been his driver back before his rebuild when his illness had been at its worse. At the same time, though, it was kind of nice to have someone actually care about him being sick rather than just ignoring or insulting him about it. 

Another fifteen minutes of waiting and Gordon was dropped off at the break room as well. The tall, thin man that had come in with him gave him a wink and a “later handsome” before sauntering back out. Everyone stared. 

“What was that?” Thomas asked, looking between Gordon’s red face and the now closed door with confusion. 

“Nothing. Nothing,” The big engine grumbled as he took a seat next to Henry. 

Any further conversation was halted when the Fat Controller stepped to the front of the room and cleared his throat. Ted and James’ fireman slipped quietly out to go tend to their engines for the afternoon runs while all were distracted. 

“After the events of yesterday, I realize the need for something to keep you all occupied,” Sir Topham stated, looking over at Henry in particular. He didn’t blame the green engine for getting sick, but leaving them to their own devices for a day clearly had not been the best of ideas, “So, I have arranged for you all to spend the day at the animal park. The employees there have been informed of your, ah, situation, so you can go to any of them if you need assistance. There is a coach waiting outside to take you there.”

The room erupted with excited murmurs as everyone stood and headed outside. This was very exciting indeed. All of them had gone past the Animal Park for one reason or another, even helped deliver a few of the animals, but for obvious reasons had never been inside. It was a chance of a lifetime. 

Outside, Sodor’s blue number 2 engine waited for them with a single coach coupled up behind. Edward smiled when he saw his body, glad that he, in some form, had been chosen to pull an important special over one of the younger, more powerful engines. It did make sense, the Animal Park was, after all, on his branch line. 

With a sense of awe, the engines climbed up into the coach and settled into the seats. Every engine loved pulling coaches, it was considered one of the best and most important jobs an engine could do, but never did they imagine they’d be able to see inside one. To know just how their passengers felt. 

When everyone was settled and the train had started off, bag lunches were passed out and the group eagerly dug in as they watched the familiar scenery flash by outside the windows. The sandwiches and fruit were simple and cheap, but to a group that had only ever eaten food three times in their life it was a feast. Before they knew it, the food was gone and they had arrived at their destination. The platform was surprisingly busy, with many families coming to visit the park on such a lovely Sunday afternoon. 

“Have fun, you all!” They looked back to see Edward’s driver leaning out of the cab, waving to them. 

“Keep an eye on this lot, Edward!” The fireman added, making Edward smile. The former engine did hope, though, that the group would be able to get through the day without any chaos requiring his intervention. He wanted to look around the animal park too!

At the entrance to the park, each one of them received a map of the park that helpfully showed the locations of all the animals and instructions to meet back at the platform at closing time. Without the danger of getting hopelessly lost, the group elected to split up to wander the park. Thomas and Percy ran off first, incredibly excited about seeing the big animals in the way that only young people could be. Hiro trailed closely behind them, smiling with amusement, and after a moment’s indecision Emily followed. Gordon elected to follow behind Henry as the green engine wandered towards the bird enclosures, reasoning that if something happened he was the only one large and strong enough to carry Henry to help. Which left Edward to look after James. 

“So how was your morning, James?” Edward asked, trying to make conversation as they idly strolled through the park. Nearest to them was a large enclosure holding a large, spotted cat. The sign on the fence stated it was called a “jaguar.” 

“Ugh, it was awful,” James seemed eager to have the chance to complain to someone as he leaned against the railing that separated the walkways from the fenced in animals. “Henry got sick, so driver woke me up very early to go take the Kipper. And one of the workmen threw a fish at my face! It was disgusting! All slimy and smelly.”

Edward tried hard to be sympathetic, he really did, but he couldn’t help but laugh at this. “It’s just fish, James. It can’t hurt you.”

“I know that! I’m not scared of fish. I just hate them. And I hate it when they touch me,” James shuddered and turned to watch the lazily twitching tail of the big cat. “It wasn’t so bad later though. Driver has a young daughter. She had me come join her tea party. She was so happy to have someone else there to play with her.”

“That’s nice. My driver’s children have all grown up. Driver’s wife seemed happy to have a guest in the house though. She fed me so much food I thought I might burst.” Edward chuckled, then both fell silent again. 

“So. Do you think it ever does anything?” James asked after a few minutes of watching the jaguar, which seemed perfectly content to sleep the day away in the sunlight. Besides the flicking tip of its tail, the cat hadn’t moved an inch since they had walked over. 

Edward shrugged. “The sign says that it’s a very deadly predator. Maybe it’s just tired.”

Slowly, the pair walked on to see the other animals of the park. Maybe some of the others would be a little more awake. 

 

Henry, meanwhile, knew exactly where he was headed as he strolled along the paths with Gordon close behind him. Every so often, he stopped to consult his map before heading onward. Things looked much closer together on the piece of paper than in real life, and Gordon always made sure to put in his opinion from over Henry’s shoulder. Unfortunately, the big engine didn’t have a terribly great sense of direction and the two got a bit lost more than once on their way. Henry, though, was determined to find the bird enclosures marked on the map. Birds were some of his favorite animals to see in the forest, and he never tired of hearing their lovely songs or watching them flit about. Sometimes, if he was very still and very quiet, a few would even perch on him. 

Finally, the two found a rather squat wooden building with “Bird Feeding Station” marked over the door and stepped inside. Henry gasped in delight when they found themselves in a fairly sizable room filled with a colorful flock of small budgies and parakeets. A park employee was there, selling small sticks of birdseed so that visitors could feed the birds, and Henry eagerly handed over a few coins to get a couple for himself and Gordon. 

Holding out his hand with the seed stick in it, Henry grinned when he was suddenly covered in small chirping birds all intent on the food in his hand. Their little feet tickled on his arms, and several flapped right past his face as they jostled for position. 

Gordon stood back in the corner, arms crossed as he watched. However, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face at just how happy Henry looked standing there covered in little birds. He was so distracted watching his friend that Gordon didn’t notice when a little parakeet landed on his head until it cheeped loudly and insistently. 

Henry looked over and couldn’t stifle his laughter at the sight of Gordon with a little bird perched atop his head, hopping around as it tried to figure out the best way to get the seed stick clenched in the hand of the large human. “I think it wants that food, Gordon.”

Obligingly, Gordon held up the seed stick so the little bird could hop to his hand and start pecking away. Immediately several more budgies joined it, all squabbling over the food stick with a flurry of chirping. Gordon was surprised, he’d never been so close to this many birds before, and he held the stick far away from his body just in case. Henry just laughed. 

 

By all accounts, the trip to the animal park was a success. No one got hurt or had to be rushed to the hospital, no animals has escaped (though there had been a close call with a butterfly attempting to ride out of the butterfly house on Percy’s head), and all engines were kept nicely occupied. The engines went home tired but happy to dinner with their drivers and bed.

Monday morning, fireman Sidney Hever woke up before the sun and kissed goodbye to his sleeping wife. He was always the first to the sheds in the morning, a habit he had held for many years. Edward, being the oldest engine at the sheds, always took a little more work and care to get up and moving. Clutching his morning cup of coffee, Sidney peeked into the children’s room to check on his guest. 

Hiro had turned out to be a wonderful houseguest, friendly and kind with a fondness for children. But he was also firm, and didn’t let the twins bully him like they often did with adults they didn’t know. He also wasn’t in the bed where Sidney had left him the night before. 

A phone call to Charlie Sand confirmed that Edward was also gone from his bed. Neither engine seemed the kind to sneak out in the night, so this could only mean one thing. 

Driver and Fireman both rushed to the sheds, throwing open the doors with an eagerness they had not felt in many years. There, snoring softly, were all the engines fast asleep and back in their rightful bodies. The cheering of the two men woke up the slumbering engines, who quickly joined in with elated laughter at the joy of being back to their normal selves. Calls went out to the Fat Controller and to the other drivers and firemen, who rushed in to see their engines. Things were back to normal.


End file.
